Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/621

* I^UTHEBANISM. 553 LXTTHEEANISM. ing in the spiritual realm a standard of education akin to the system of general education which prevails in Lutheran countries. Missions to the heathen were confessedly impracticable for Prot- estants in the Reformation age, yet as early as 1559 Gustavus Vasa established a mission among the Lapps in Xorthern Sweden. Others carried evangelical doctrines into Russia. King Fred- erick IV. of Denmark sent out missionaries lO India, and Ziegenbalg and Pliitzchau sailed for Tranquebar in July, 1700, almost a century be- fore the formation of English missionarj' so- cieties. Lutheran Halle became the centre of foreign mission activity. A colony of Swedes, which settled along the Delaware River in 1G30, were the first Protestants to come to America with the express object of evangelizing the aborigines, and one of its clergj-men, John Cam- panius, by his translation of Luther's catechism, made the first effort at publication in an Indian tongue. Although Lutheran Europe lacks the wealth of England and America, and although Lutheran contributions in this country fall be- low those of some other churches, yet foreign missions are zealously prosecuted by nearly all American Lutheran bodies, and European Lutherans maintain a number of powerful so- cities: the Berlin, the Leipzig, the Rhenish, the Bremen, the Gossner, the Basel, the Hermanns- burg, the Xorwegian. the Swedish, the Danish, etc., whose missionaries are laboring in every quarter of the heathen world. (See Missiox.s, Christian.) The Lutherans of Europe have had a peculiar and enormous task in following every- where the streams of emigration with the min- istry of the word. For the purpose of training pastors for this work eleven seminaries -are sup- ported in Germany by voluntary offerings. An- other peculiar work is done by the Gustav Adolph Vcrein, an association with more than one thousand branches, which gives aid to the Diaspora, i.e. Protestants living in Roman Cath- olic communities. Its income, in 1901. was .?500.- 000. There is also considerable activity in Jew- ish missions; the work of the '"Inner ilission" in Germany has recently grown to be a mighty power in protecting and rescuing the imperiled members of the Church; philanthropic institu- tions of every description are numberless : and societies abound for the distribution of the Scrip- tures. The Canstein Bible Institute was founded at Halle in 1710. a hundred years before the British Foreign Bible Society. History'. The most notable external event in the history of Lutheranism, after the triumph of the Reformation in 1555. was the forcible transference, a few years later, by the civil au- thorities, of the churches of the Palatinate, Bremen, and Anhalt to the Reformed communion. The immediate cause of this was a strenuous endeavor to force an accommodation between the Lutheran doctrine of the actual participation in Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist, and Calvin's view of a spiritual enjoyment of Christ's body and blond by faith. It was the first en- deavor for denominational union and resulted in rending the Lutheran body. A similar zeal for a union of the evangelical forces, inspired by the determination to liold the differences between the Lutherans and the Reformed as non-essen- tial, in the seventeenth century, wrested the Landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel and the Court (though not the people) of the Electorate of Brandenburg from Lutheran jirinciples. Luther's catechism was forbidden in the former country, the Reformed worship was introduced, and re- calcitrant pastors were banished and replaced l)y Calvinists. The tcmlency toward union led to numerous conferences (Leipzig, 1031; Thorn, 1045; C'asscl, 1661), the main issue in dispute being always the distinctive!}- Lutheran doc- trine of the Lord's Supper. The champions of union sought agreement in the use of a for- mula which, while recognizing the Lutheran view, admitted a Calvinistic interpretation. The result of these efforts as well as of the two edicts of the Great Elector of Brandenburg ( 1002, 1064) was the widening rather than the heal- ing of division. The eighteenth century witnessed the decay of Pietism, which, after it had quickened every spiritual interest, left a harvest of narrowness and cant, of hazy emotion and sectarian fanati- cism. Pietism was followed by the sway of Ra- tionalism, which, by its assault on the doctrines of Christianity, threatened to poison the Church's heart and paralyze all its activity. The most notable event of the nineteenth cen- tury was the edict of Frederick William III., which in 1817 imited the Lutheran and the Re- formed of Prussia in one State Church, i.e. under one system of government, while each denomina- tion adhered to its own confession, a measure followed by several other German States. The Reformed as a body have as a result almost disappeared, while Lutheranism has been modi- fied by a Reformed leaven. For further details concerning European Lutheranism, see the arti- cles on Lutheran countries and the biographical sketches of Lutheran leaders ; see also the ar- ticle German Theology. Lutheranism ix the United States, [lis- lory. — Dutch Lutherans came to America with the first settlers on Manhattan Island in 1023, but the services of a pastor were denied them until the English occupation in 1004. Swedish Lutherans settled on the Delaware in 1037 and 1042, bringing with them explicit instructions not to disturtj the exercise of the Reformed re- ligion. The Germans began to arrive early in the eighteenth century, and soon in large num- bers, but they were long destitute of pastors and had but few," feeble, and .scattered organizations prior to the arrival of Heinrich Melchior Miihl- enberg (q.v.) in 1742. He was followed by a number of consecrated and educated men from Halle, under whom the Lutheran Church attained inrtuence far and wide. A synod was organized in Pennsvlvania in 1748, one in Xew York in 1780, one" in Xorth Carolina in 1803, and one in Ohio in 1818. The ravages of two wars left the Church in a state of desolation. Then followed the problem of a transition to English worship, the strenuous and persistent opposition to which caused immeasurable injury to the Church, alienating the younger anil niore progressive ele- ments, liarring the establishment of educational institutions, and mitting her at a serious dis- advantage, especially in the cities. Organizations. Lutherans in the United States are divided among a number of distinct bodies. The General finwd. aiming at a union of all Lutherans, was founded in 1820. It failed to unite all bearing the name, but from its organization a new era opened for the whole Ch'iirch. It gave t'..> iini>iilsc and support for